baked sockeye salmon with bell peppers and capers
Posted by whatsonmyplate on February 10, 2008
When it comes to making dinner I rarely like to slack off. I feel like with all my experimenting these days I don’t really have any go-to off-night meals. Back in the day I’d always have salmon in my fridge and make salmong marinated in soya sauce, ginger, garlic, honey and crushed red pepper flakes. I haven’t made that in AGES.
But I digress.
The other night I was thinking about making dinner and realized that I had some salmon in the fridge that I just HAD to use. So as usual I started going through my cookbook collection looking for something new. Over the holidays I got a copy of Marcella Says… by Marcella Hazan that I hadn’t used. I looked at the index on the off chance that she would have a salmon recipe (they don’t really eat Salmon in Italy!) and she actually had a few.
I fell in love with this because of the capers. I LOVE LOVE capers. Not sure when the love started but it has been in effect for a while now. I also liked the idea of roasting my own peppers.
I made the recipe exactly as written and it turned out great. I really liked the sweetness of the roasted peppers with the slightly salty capers. At first I was nervous about the lack of seasoning on the salmon, but the salt and pepper alone were all the dish needed. I served this some broccoli cooked with chile pepper flakes and white wine and it was great. Would be really nice with some orzo…
INGREDIENTS
2 red bell peppers and 1 yellow
2 pounds wild salmon, preferably cut as a long fillet, not steaks
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed in cold water if packed in vinegar OR if packed in salt, rinsed, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, then rinsed again; if their size is much larger than nonpareils, cut them up a little bit
4 whole peeled garlic cloves
Fine sea salt
Black pepper ground fresh from the mill
PREPARATION
1. Char the peppers, skin them, split them, and remove their core and seeds. Cut them into strips less than an inch wide and 1 1/2 -inch long. You can prepare the peppers early the same day that you are making the fish for dinner. 2. Turn on the oven to 375°.
3. Wash the fish in cold water and pat it dry with paper towels.
4. Coat a baking dish with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Lay the salmon down in the pan, skin side facing down if you have long fillets. Distribute all around the salmon the peppers, capers, and the whole peeled garlic cloves. Sprinkle with a liberal quantity of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pour the remaining olive oil over the fish. Put the dish in the preheated oven and cook for 16 minutes. Let it settle for a few minutes before serving.
(From Marcella Says.. via epicurious)
